The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation has been authorizing (aka sponsoring) charter schools in Ohio since 2005, and we’ve learned a ton these past five years. Sharing these lessons is important – one of the reasons we devote time, energy, and money on our annual sponsorship report.
We've been no fans of the Columbus City School District's treatment
Much has been written about spectacular charter school blow-ups that have cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. Rarely, if ever, do we see headlines that read ???Closed charter school returns $423,421 to state's coffers.???
A key purpose of education is to strengthen the polity. Thomas Jefferson summed it up when he said, ???To penetrate and dissipate these clouds of darkness, the general mind must be strengthened by education.??? The health of Ohio's polity is like that of a middle-aged smoker.
In this policy brief, Fordham gives its advice to Governor-elect Kasich and the incoming leaders of the Ohio House and Senate as it relates to the future of K-12 education policy in the Buckeye State.
Ohio school districts and charters that signed onto the state's Race to the Top proposal had until October 22 to submit their plans for implementation to the Ohio Department of Education.
John Kasich won the Ohio governor's race last Tuesday. He will take office two months from tomorrow with much goodwill and support in both the state House and Senate, where significant GOP majorities will rule both chambers. But he will also face a vast budget shortfall?estimated at $6 to $8 billion?for the next biennium.
Ohio has a new Republican governor, a GOP-controlled House, a new US senator, and come January many other statewide offices will be a sea of red.
